by scottrainey » Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:10 pm
Best had to be the reunited Duran Duran at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, March of 2005. The guys looked and sounded great.
A close #2 would be A Flock of Seagulls at La Luna, also in Portland, around 1996 or so. Mike Score seemed to be having such a ball with all of us (then) late twenties and early thirties fans singing along to every classic at the top of our lungs. He seemed genuinely grateful to the audience, and my perception was that he's a pretty nice guy.
Okay, indulge me for a third: Harry Connick, Jr. at the Arlene Schnitzer Auditorium in Portland, 2003, I believe. The man is a master showman, vocalist, and pianist. And his rapport with the audience was second to none.
Worst? Has to be Modern English in 1996. The band phoned in the performance, and Robbie Grey acted as if it were beneath him to sing any song that might be recognizable to the general public.
Second worst was Missing Persons, 1996, La Luna. Poor Dale Bozzio looked like someone's mom who'd had too many whiskey sours before Oprah came on, and acted that way, too. Honestly, she actually spent about half her time onstage nursing some kind of alcoholic bevvie. However, a really cool (and bizarre) thing happened at the end of the show. Ms. Lush, er, Bozzio, came out after the encore to announce that it was her son's 6th birthday that day, and she intended to share the cake with the audience. Now, there were several hundred people in attendance (I'm guessing), but I was up at the stage, so I got a plate of cake. For Dale Bozzio's son's birthday.
Too weird.